Import Export Business

This Import Export Business blog is dedicated to providing you with news, information and resources about the business of international trade. You will find the information useful to both business owners who wish to begin exporting or expand their export markets and new entrepreneurs seeking the basics of how to get started.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Import Export Courses Now Available Via Online Delivery

We will soon have the information and new LOWER PRICES and FASTER DELIVERY info posted to their respective web pages, but for now,we are posting the announcement of the NEW ONLINE DELIVERY of the Import and Export business courses here in our blog.

Basically, all the course files that were placed on CD roms, packaged in a fancylooking box and then shipped sometimes taking 2-3 weeks due to the customsclearance delays in your country are now being made available online via apassword accessible dedicated member website.

You will need a broadband connection to download the files, so pleasekeep that in mind as you make a decision.Now, in addition to the much faster delivery, the prices will be changed shortly toreflect the basic shipping costs being taken off the price.

Here is the link to the combined Import Export Toolkit course (components areoutlined on the web page) -http://www.importexporthelp.com/trdspx1.htm*** Note the stated price is $424 and $25 would have been added for overseas shipment - NOW (and this may change to a higher price) you can get ALL thematerials via direct member site download for only $409.00US.

If you were only interested in either the exporting or importing courses, here are their direct links and new online delivery prices:Importing Course - Price on page is $160 and $25 would have been required toship --http://goo.gl/HLuk6n

Now even if you are in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Australia orwherever you are in the world, you do not need to be held hostage to the merciesof your customs bureau for delivering your course. Within 1 Business Day ofplacing your order, you will receive your Password and UserID to useto get ALL the course materials directly downloaded to your computer.Ron CobleCoble International - International Marketing Services

Thursday, June 10, 2010

How to verify your Chinese Buyers, Partners or Suppliers?

I cannot take credit for much of the following - it was posted anonymously in a business forum that I belong to and is some of the best advice anywhere on how to verify Chinese suppliers or buyers. If the anonymous poster to that forum would like to contact me and have his bio added to this valuable information, I would be happy to do so. I have edited the remarks to some degree, but the majority is just as it was posted:

Most Chinese business people are good and trustworthy, but like bussinesses and individuals in all countries, some fraudsters or liars do exist. A lot of business people outside of China are often confused by the business registration and credit status of Chinese companies and find it difficult verifying information about them. Based on my 8+ years of business experience *(the forum poster) with our Chinese suppliers and partners, I have summarized some useful and practical tips as follows:

Checking the contact information - In order to avoid being traced by law enforcement authorities, most scammers will not offer genuine registration information online. They will provide a false company address, telephone number and fax number or persuade buyers to contact them by mobile phone only.

You should be aware of the companies that only provide you with mobile phone number (such as 86-1580000 0000). Normally, legitimate businesses will use a land line telephone instead of mobile phone number. Some Chinese friends told me that you can buy hundreds of mobile phone numbers if you like, and there are no restrictions or limitations. That is why scammers always use mobile phone numbers instead of landline telephones. Take a standard China telephone number for example, such as 86 755 3333 3333, “86” is the country code of China, “755” area code, and “3333 3333” telephone number. Therefore, you can do some basic check of the location of the telephone number using “area code”.

Checking their business license and credit status - Legal companies in China have to register with the Chinese government authorities and obtain a unique company registration number. If your business partner cannot offer you a unique company registration number, it is risky to deal with them. To check the registration number your supplier provided, you need to visit their local administrative government website with the number they provided. However, you should be aware that most government websites in China are written in Chinese. You can also contact their local Bureau of Industry & Commerce, which is the only government organization responsible for the registration of legitimate companies or enterprises in China. You can ask friends in China to help you verify this company.

You can also use a third-party authentication service company in China to help you verify information, such as OrientCredit, SMR, Inter-credit, or some other credit reporting companies in China. NOTE FROM RON COBLE: you may also wish to contact a Chinese trade representative at the Chinese embassy in Washington DC - you can find their contact details at http://www.embassy.org/

Incredibly low prices or high commission rate - most Chinese scammers will lure buyers with very low prices. If the prices they offer are too good to be true, you should investigate why their prices are so low. Most scammers in China make a profit by selling replicas or fakes of branded goods to overseas buyers. This is very risky because the goods could be confiscated or detained by Chinese customs if they are considered illegal in China.

Payment and shipment terms - the scammers never accept L/C as a term of payment. They prefer Western Union, and T/T etc. They also never deliver goods through formal channels; preferring instead to deliver samples Express by Fedex, TNT, EMS to avoid examinations from Chinese customs. Scammers never accept Letter of Credit (LC) payments but there are some small factories they don't have their professional foreign trading staff, so they do not dare to accept LC as they could be refused by negotiating bank, and because they are small and do not have enough operating funds so they would like to receive T/T 30% or 50% in advance. For sample orders and smaller shipments, consider using an escrow service or Western union.

Visit their company or factory in person - everybody agrees that the best and ultimate way is to visit these companies; you can't know much about a company unless you visit it. But I think this is some kind of second stage of negotiation. Because you may receive a lot of offers by many different Chinese suppliers, and it’s impossible for you to go to all of their factories one by one and therefore you should narrow your selections before deciding to visit their office or plant in person.

PS: During (forum poster's) years of business experience with our Chinese partners, we found that it is very important to acquire the credit information of them at the first stage and then you may determine whether you to resume the negotiations or not. Because you should not trust the information published by suppliers on B2B website because in most instances it is misleading. Some researchers have said (I am not sure about the data, because I am not a researcher.), only about 53% of verified companies are the same as they described in B2B Websites; 21% of them are overstated for their business condition; and 26% of those companies, turned out to be a scammer. Finally, there is an old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”; you should always keep in mind!"

Friday, June 04, 2010

Motivation To Succeed In The Import Export Business

Most of this post is attributed to my old business friend and associate,Jim Straw, who has over 50 years of success in various businesses andis considered one of the top marketing gurus who continues to operatehis business while well into his 80's.

This came to me as part of an email and I thought it appropriate topost here since motivation or "coaching" is a key factor in the decisionof which Import Export Business training course people select.

Jim's post begins here.....

Here lately, I've been reading a lot about *How to Motivate Your SalesTeam* in the multitude of ezines I receive.

As always, the ideas ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime.

To be quite frank with you, I have never tried to "motivate" any ofmy sales people (dealers, associates, affiliates, whatever). I always figuredthat those individuals who were "real" would take the bull by the hornsand make the sales to make the money, because ...

In the words of Andrew Carnegie:

"There is no use whatever trying to help people who do nothelp themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unlesshe be willing to climb himself."

Beyond that, as Frank Tibolt said:

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start athing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldomgenerates action."

Rather than wasting my time trying to "motivate" people, I have alwaysspent my time supporting the efforts of those who were doing something.

I may not tell you what you want to hear ... like the b.s. artists do... but, I will tell you the facts of the matter as I know them to be frommy over 50 years hands-on experience in the business community. -- That'swhat I'm here for. -- Your success is just as important to me as it isto you because, when YOU succeed, I succeed, too.

Feel free to pick my brain.

And, remember what Charles Steinmetz said:

"No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions."

I ain't from the government, but I am here to help you. .....end of Jim Straw's email.My (Ron Coble's) further comments.......Although our Importing course and Exporting course and the comboImport Export Toolkit course offer email consulting for ONE FULL YEARthat allows you to ask any question you want in that time, many people opt to pay THOUSANDS of dollars more for the promise of being ableto TALK to someone by phone. Whether it is an inherent need to have someone "coaching" them or "motivating" them, they are spending thousands of dollars and untoldhours of precious time on a promise that I have yet to have anyone tell me helps them reach ANY success in this business.As Jim mentions in his email text above, the Email consulting that isoffered with our courses will provide you with answers....although theymay not be the answers you are seeking.For instance, if you submit a question that we know is covered in the body of the course, then you will receive an answer referencing that portion so "YOU" may read that section and learn and make your own decisions accordingly.Other answers you may not like are when you are so enthusiastic about a deal offered to you but the answer comes back to stay away from it.We are not deal killers but if you ask about something that we have prior knowledge of, that is the answer you will get, we are not going to tailor our answers to meet your hoped for expectations. Reality is what it is and sometimes it sucks!Additionally, you cannot expect someone else to learn ALL the aspectsof a particular deal you are trying to put together so much so that you are really seeking a confirmation of your decision to move forward or not. There is NO profit incentive for us to get involved in your deals andquite frankly we have NO interest in becoming silent partners with everyone who purchases our "HOW TO" course.I covered this in a previous post about making "DECISIONS". Makingdecisions is what separates the successes from the failures and havingsome minimum wage or commission paid rep on the other end of thephone giving their totally unqualified "OPINION" is a sure recipe for FAILURE.It was interesting that I received Jim Straw's email today because I hadbeen thinking about how MOST people are simply not cut out to get involved in international trade. They view the business as a "get richquick" scheme or "how do I make money" opportunity and it simply isnot suited for that type of mentality, although most purveyors of importexport training would have you believe otherwise.Hope this post will enlighten those who really have an interest in gettingstarted in the Import and/or Export business and also help save thosewho are in need of constant motivation or who are looking at importexport as a "money making opportunity" from spending their hard earnedmoney on some useless program that promises to hold their hand whileskipping down the yellow brick road to riches.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Here are some FREE B2B resources that may only be available fora short period of time - they are provided FREE of charge -

Discover How Factoring Can Work For Your Company

Factoring allows your business to get money quickly withoutthe hassle of getting a bank involved. This free guideexplains the tips and tricks of finding a factoring servicethat fits your monetary needs and also comes with pricequotes from pre-screened vendors so you can compare invoicefactoring prices. In order to receive a loan from factoringcompanies, you must have outstanding invoices that you cansell over to the factoring company. The factoring companywill take on the invoice debt and give you the money.

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Which brings us to the problem – how can you help make sureyour offering stands out in the sea of white papers? Armyourself with this practical advice to:

About Me

Started Coble International in 1988 with the express purpose of providing Export Import marketing assistance to manufacturers and providing B2B products and services to the global B2B community. Our business expanded exponentially in the late 1990's when we launched our website ImportExportHelp.com. The Internet was and continues to be the best marketing tool for ALL businesses, anywhere in the world. The Import Export business training courses we once offered have been used by community colleges, busineses and individuals around the world and our B2B marketing databases have been used by companies in 70 countries to expand their markets.